Sermons on important subjects by Rev. Paul C. Jong

The Essence of Paul’s Faith

< Galatians 2:20 >

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

In today’s Scripture passage, we can find the essence
of the Apostle Paul’s faith: His faith was to believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, that He came to this earth and took upon
all the sins of mankind by being baptized by John, that He carried
these sins of the world to the Cross and shed His blood to death,
that He rose from the dead again, and that He has thereby completed
our salvation.

This is why Paul said, “I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians
2:20). Paul stated here that his old self died with Christ,
and that now it is Christ who lives in him. He continued to say,
“The life which I now live in the flesh is not lived for myself,
but for Christ who is in me.”

This faith is not only the confession of Paul, but
also of ours. The Apostle Paul believed that his sins were passed
onto Jesus Christ with the baptism that He received from John, and
it was by this faith that Paul had died with Jesus and was brought
to life again with Jesus. Just as Paul did by faith, we, too, can
die with Jesus Christ and live with Him as long as we have faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, God
has saved us from all our sins once for all. Because Jesus Christ
has saved us from the sins of the world through the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, it is by our faith in Jesus Christ as our
Savior that we now live. Therefore, regardless of how we might look
right now in our flesh, in Jesus Christ we have become those who
had died with Him and were brought to life with Him. We now live
a new life by our faith in the Lord who lives forever.

The Apostle Paul could live such a new life because
Jesus Christ had been baptized and shed His blood for his sins.
He said that it wasn’t because of something good he had done in
his flesh, but by his faith in the Son of God that he lived again.
In other words, because the Apostle Paul believed that by being
baptized for him Jesus Christ saved him from the sins of the world
and brought him to life again, by this faith, he had died with Jesus
Christ and was brought to life again with Him. That’s how he could
live his life by faith in the Son of God, and in the salvation that
this Son of God fulfilled by delivering him from his sins. Such
faith is not unique to only Paul, but it is the same for all those
who have received the remission of their sins in Jesus Christ by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Paul’s Faith Was to Believe
That He Had Died with Jesus Christ and Was Resurrected with Him

The reason why the Apostle Paul made this confession
is because in his heart he had faith in the true gospel that he
had died with Jesus Christ and lived with Him: “Because of our sins,
we could not avoid but be accursed forever and face eternal death;
however, when Jesus Christ came to this earth and took upon the
sins of mankind once for all by being baptized by John the Baptist,
all our sins were also passed onto Jesus at that moment, and by
being crucified to shed His blood and rising from the dead again,
Jesus has saved us. Therefore, those who now believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit can live forever precisely by faith.”

The fact that our souls can now live, regardless of
whether we are good or bad in our flesh, is just because of the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. By believing in the Son of God
as our Savior who has delivered us from all our sins, we all can
be saved by faith. Moreover, because the Son of God has at once
delivered us from all our sins when we had been bound by these sins,
we are now able to live a righteous life by placing our faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is because the Lord
blotted out all our sins once for all with the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and He has enabled us the believers to live as God’s
workers, thereby making it possible for us to live eternally blessed
lives. Anyone who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
can confess the true faith of salvation from now on.

Since we still live in our flesh, there are times
when we make mistakes. Sometimes, we are tempted to revert back
to the behaviors of our old selves. If we do not rely on our faith
in the true gospel, we might become dead again by the weight of
our accumulated mistakes. The Apostle Paul was no different; he,
too, was capable of going back to his old self in his flesh, and
this is why he could not but rely on the truth that his old self
had been actually crucified with Jesus Christ, and therefore he
could live a new life in Jesus Christ by faith. The Apostle Paul
here was making his confession of faith only properly that Jesus
Christ had brought him to life again through the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Just like the Apostle Paul’s confession of faith,
we, too, are able to live forever, through our faith of dying with
Jesus Christ and of being brought to life again with Him.

This is a tremendous faith based precisely on the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Now, those who have been washed
from all their sins by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit are the ones who have this same faith by which they are
living their new lives with Jesus Christ. Yet among so many people
living this world, only a handful of Christians have the definitive
knowledge of the gospel of the water and the Spirit and believe
in it. Whenever I think about this, I am compelled once again to
thank God for my precious salvation. Though we are insufficient,
we can now follow the Lord because of our faith in the Son of God.

As we have been carrying on with our lives of faith,
we’ve done some good things, but we’ve also made many mistakes.
Yet I see that this is unavoidable even in the future, in that as
we live our lives of faith, we cannot help but continue to make
mistakes. Do you believe that you are capable of excelling in everything?

Some people might be worried about how to serve the
Lord to the end when they think about their wickedness and weaknesses
even though they have been born again by believing in the gospel
Word of the water and the Spirit. However, to serve the Lord is
not through our own strength, but we can serve Him through our faith
with the power given by the Lord. We must realize that it is always
the Lord who empowers us.

When we think about ourselves, we are worrying over
the days to come because we do not have faith, the belief that we
had died with Jesus Christ and were brought to life again with Jesus
Christ. In addition, the reason why we come to worry about how we
can live in this world is because we keep looking at our own insufficiencies.
Sometime we think to ourselves, “I really shouldn’t be like this,”
and mindful of our many shortcomings, we worry how we can carry
on with our lives of faith. So we even consider it a miracle that
we have come along this far with our lives of faith. But all such
worries can now be vanquished once for all with our faith that dies
with Jesus Christ and lives with Him.

This kind of faith enables us to follow the Lord everyday
by faith. Before our Lord, we’ve done some good things with our
faith, but mistakes have also been made. Even so, by our faith in
the Lord, we still live in boldness. We will, of course, strive
to do things well, but when we consider our past selves, there clearly
were some mistakes made, and so there will be times when we reach
moments of weakness. In times like these, you need faith all the
more, just as the Apostle Paul had lived by his faith in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Paul confessed that it was because of Christ that
he had lived a new life thus far and that he would also live by
faith in the Son of God. He said that because the Son of God took
upon all our sins once for all through the baptism He received for
us, and because He was crucified and died on the Cross, it is by
our faith in this that we live. To all of us who believe in the
gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, the Lord has given the
perfect remission of sin and new life. Because God has saved us
once for all, we, too, have become the ones who live forever by
believing in the baptism that this Son of God received and in His
bloodshed. By this faith, that the Son of God has saved you from
all your sins through the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit,
you can live forever.

Whenever our weaknesses are revealed, we have to remember
the essence of the Apostle Paul’s faith. You and I cannot live by
looking at our flesh alone. If we look toward only our own flesh
as we live, there can only be death awaiting us. We can triumph
and also receive eternal life by our faith in the Son of God who
has saved us perfectly. Therefore, it is indispensable for us to
realize that our old selves are dead beings in Jesus Christ, but
at the same time, we are the new creatures to live forever, because
the Son of God has saved us, who had all been sinners, and we believe
in Him as our Savior. By our faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit given by this Son of God, we have been brought to life
again from death. It is by this faith in the Truth that the Son
of God has saved us, that we are now to live forever.

Right now in your hearts, there must be the belief
that the Son of God has saved us from all our sins and brought us
to eternal life. Do you have this faith? Do you believe that through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, Jesus Christ has already
blotted out your sins, bore the condemnation of all sins, and rose
from the dead again? It is my sincere desire that all of you would
now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and quickly
come to have the same faith that Paul had. Our Lord lacked nothing
to blot out your sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
to make you God’s people, and to turn you into the workers of His
righteousness. By believing that God has made us His own children
who are to live forever, we will indeed live forever by this faith.
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that
He has saved us through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
We are therefore to live forever with God.

Do you believe in the Son of God who came by the gospel
of the water and the Spirit as your Savior? You must believe so,
that for you, Jesus Christ the Son of God was baptized by John,
died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved
you from all your sins.

Now we have come to recognize that we are dead beings
in faith. And we have actually become new living creatures by believing
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore we are
running toward the finish line by placing our faith in the Lord.
Sometimes, staring at the weaknesses of our flesh, we would end
up falling into a bottomless pit and wandering in the valley of
death. But instead of looking at our own flesh, we can stand firm
again by looking at ourselves through our faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. In fact, we had died with Jesus Christ
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and we have been brought
to life again with Jesus Christ.

Our souls, who now believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit like Paul’s faith, have become living spirits. Though
we live in our weak flesh now, we have been able to live a righteous
life by faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is
because there is power in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
It is because we believe wholeheartedly in the Lord who came by
the water and the blood that we have been able to live forever.
In other words, even though our flesh is insufficient, we still
have eternal life that never dies.

Just as the Apostle Paul had live by faith with Jesus
Christ, you and I must also live by faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Looking at yourselves, if you think, “Why am I like
this? I am so hopeless!” and fall into despair, you are bound to
die. But if you believe that the Son of God has forever blotted
out all your sins, and that He has raised you from death, then you
can live with Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ has actually saved
you with the Truth of the water and the Spirit, if you have faith
in this gospel, you can die and live with Him.

The Lord has definitely saved you and me from death.
By delivering you from all your sins and the condemnation of all
your sins, the Lord has made you God’s own people. He has saved
you and me by delivering us from all our sins and giving us new
life. This is the basis of how we can be resurrected from death
to live again, and how we have also received the blessing of eternal
life from God.

We must always live in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, believing that we had died with Jesus Christ and were
brought to life with Jesus Christ. And we must live by the faith
that believes in the Son of God. To do so, we should not look at
ourselves in despair by what we see, but always look toward the
Lord. In fact, we have been able to live all this time until now
only by the grace and help of the Lord. It is when we always look
toward the Lord by faith that we can do what is right and never
die. When we did not look toward the Lord but followed the biddings
of our own will, we couldn’t avoid but do what the Lord did not
want us to do. Whatever good things you might have done, these were
done because of your faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
and whatever bad things you might have done, these mistakes were
made because you were misled by your thoughts of the flesh.

The faith of the Apostle Paul is revealed in Galatians
3:27, where he said, “For as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ.” This confession means that we come
to have the faith that enables us to die with Jesus Christ and to
live with Him when we believe that the Lord has delivered us with
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For us to truly become one
with Jesus Christ, and to die and live with Him, we must first have
this faith that knows and believes in the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit given by the Lord. He enables us believers to die
with Christ and to live with Him through this gospel of the water
and the Spirit.

This is why the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1:11-12,
“But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was
preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it
from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation
of Jesus Christ.” It was through the revelation of Jesus Christ
that we also could have been saved from all our sins, and live as
God’s servants as well.

What Has Our Lord Shown to
Us Who Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit?

“The revelation of Jesus Christ” in the above passage
means to open and show the domain of God to us. Through His revelation,
we came to realize how God has saved us from our sins. The Lord
revealed this through the Word of God. In the Old Testament, sacrificial
animals accepted the Israelites’ sins as they laid their hands on
the heads of the animals. And the animals bled to death before the
altar of burnt offering and were burnt right away to pay off the
sins of the Israelites. In the Old Testament, it was an unblemished
lamb, goat, or bull that became the sacrificial offering before
God and at once blotted out all the iniquities of a sinner.

In the New Testament, it was Jesus Christ who, like
the sacrificial system’s laying on of hands and sacrifice, accepted
the sins of mankind once for all by being baptized by John the Baptist,
shouldered the sins of this world all at once, died on the Cross,
rose from the dead again, and has thereby become the perfect Savior
of believers. Becoming like the sacrificial offering of the Old
Testament, Jesus revealed true salvation to us, and became the Savior
who saved us from all our sins and destruction. To blot out our
sins, the Son of God was baptized and crucified, and He became the
Savior who eradicated all sins and all the condemnation of sin.

The Apostle Paul also could become a servant of God
by his faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that the
Lord had revealed to him. He believed that Jesus Christ came to
this earth to save us from the sins of this world, and when He turned
30, He took upon the sins of the world once for all by receiving
baptism from John the Baptist. Paul also believed that because Jesus
had taken all the sins of the world, He bore all the condemnation
of sin and died on the Cross, and rose from the dead again to be
our perfect Savior. This was the faith of the Apostle Paul, and
this is our faith. The Apostle Paul’s faith was one that had died
with Jesus Christ and was brought to life with Him. So, he confessed
his faith by saying, “For as many of you as were baptized into
Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).

The revelation that Jesus Christ has shown us as His
salvation is none other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Bible says that Jesus came to this earth as the Son of God and
our own sacrificial offering, and that He was baptized and shed
His blood to save us perfectly from the sins of the world. Paul’s
faith was one that believed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
The Apostle Paul believed in the baptism Jesus Christ received and
the blood He shed on the Cross as the essentials of his salvation.
His faith entailed the belief that when Jesus was baptized, his
sins were also passed onto Him. Paul was a man of faith who believed
that when Jesus Christ, having received His baptism from John the
Baptist and accepted the sins of the world, went to the Cross and
was crucified, his sins were also crucified with Jesus. And he believed
that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead again, he also rose with
Jesus Christ by faith. This was the gist of Paul’s faith.

In short, the Apostle Paul believed in Jesus Christ
as his perfect Savior. He testified to this true salvation by placing
his faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior. He believed that he had died
with Jesus Christ, and that he was also brought to life with Him.
Because Jesus Christ bore the sins of this world by being baptized
by John the Baptist, was crucified, and rose from the dead again,
it is by this faith in the Truth that we can die and live with Christ.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are our own death and
resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ, in other words,
is the resurrection of Paul, and at the same time it is our resurrection.

Paul confessed that he had become alive by believing
in the Truth that the Son of God had redeemed him, and that he would
live forever by the same faith. His faith enabled him to die with
Jesus Christ and to be resurrected with Him. With this faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, he could receive the remission
of all his sins, become a servant of God, and become one of God’s
own people who would live in His Kingdom forever.

Now, we must have the faith that makes us get baptized
into Jesus Christ. We must have the faith that enables us to die
with Jesus Christ and to be brought to life with Jesus Christ. When
we have the faith that enables us unite with Jesus Christ, we can
become the ones who will live forever with Jesus Christ to never
die. The Son of God has delivered us from sin and death because
He has given us the faith to live forever through His baptism and
His bloodshed on the Cross. Our Lord took care of our insufficiencies,
and He has made us to live forever as well.

The Apostle Paul believed in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit and preached the Truth of salvation to the saints
of the Galatian churches, but their faith was deteriorated soon.
So he wrote to them, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon
from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want
to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7).

In the days of Paul, there were those who troubled
the saints in God’s Church by insisting on the necessity of physical
circumcision besides the gospel preached by Paul. These circumcisionists
emphasized that the saints should keep the statutes of the Law in
the Old Testament, such as circumcision and the Sabbath day.

In the present age also, the legalists lead their
lives of faith as follows: They offer prayers of repentance to the
Lord, trying to wash away their sins on their own. Crying out loud,
“Lord, forgive me!” they try to purge their sins through their prayers
of repentance. To this day, countless liars have tried to perfect
their faith through such Christian practices and doctrines as the
prayers of repentance and the doctrine of incremental sanctification,
but none has been able to meet their goals and all have been ultimately
forsaken. Because they have tried to wash away their sins not through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but through their own prayers
of repentance, they have been stamped as the ones who practice lawlessness.

During the Early Church period, the circumcisionists
arose and tried to undermine the gospel of the water and the Spirit
that Jesus Christ had given to His Church. But God’s Church put
a stop to their attempt, and moreover, fulfilled its duty to spread
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

Jesus Christ came to fulfill His three offices: Jesus
Christ is the King of kings, the Prophet, and the everlasting High
Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus Christ is the Savior who
came to this earth with these three offices and who has delivered
all sinners from all their sins once for all. To save His people
from their sins, Jesus Christ came to this earth in the same image
of His people, and through the gospel of the water and the Spirit,
He taught us what our sins are and how our salvation is fulfilled—He
taught all these truths all at once. Jesus Christ offered His own
body before God the Father, and to save us from the sins of the
world, He was baptized by John the Baptist, thereby accepting all
the sins of us mankind, all your and my sins, He died on the Cross,
and He rose from the dead again. This is the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and it is the very gospel that the Apostle Paul
believed in. The Apostle Paul possessed the very faith that enabled
him to die and live with Jesus Christ.

What Consequences Would Follow
If We Were to Pervert the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit That
Our Lord Has Given Us?

Jesus Christ, the King of kings and God Himself, came
to this earth incarnated in the flesh of man to save mankind from
sin. He took upon all their sins by being baptized by John the Baptist
at the age of 30. And He carried the sins of the world to the Cross,
was crucified to death, rose from the dead again, and has thereby
given us salvation all at once. But there were those who tried to
pervert what Jesus Christ did to save you and me from our sins.
The first example of them was a group of circumcisionists of the
Early Church age.

Paul, in rebuking those who sought to pervert the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, said that anyone who tries to
spread another gospel other than the gospel of the water and the
Spirit is to be accursed. When we believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, then through this faith of ours, we wholly become
God’s people once for all and receive new life. But the circumcisionists
argued that believers had to be circumcised to be wholly saved.
Their faith was a false one.

Yet even now, there are certain groups that consider
Christianity only as a religion of self-discipline, claiming that
we must discipline our minds and hearts. Through their doctrine
of repentance, they are trying to pervert the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, the gospel through which the Son of God has blotted
out our sins once for all. By being baptized, our Lord took upon
all the sins of mankind, and by being crucified and shedding His
blood, He was condemned for all our sins once for all. This is how
He has brought us, who believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, to life.

It is by believing in this true gospel of the water
and the Spirit that we have received the remission of our sins once
for all, become God’s own people who are to live forever by faith.
If, in spite of this, there is anyone who does not believe in what
Jesus Christ the Son of God has done to save us perfectly, and instead
tries to wash away all his sins through his own prayers of repentance,
then he must be rebuked harshly as a heretic. The doctrine claming
that people can be sanctified by offering prayers of repentance
is one of the most fallacious Christian doctrines of today.

In the Galatian churches, there were those who tried
to become God’s people through circumcision. They assigned the same
weight to the obedience to the statutes of the Law, such as physical
circumcision, Sabbath, and other Jewish festivities, as to their
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Just as some of
these people in Galatia had preached circumcision instead of the
gospel of the water and the Spirit preached by Paul, now in this
age and throughout the whole world, countless Christians are trying
to wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance, rather
than through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Apostle
Paul continued to say, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you,
let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8). But, most Christians still
believe in their prayers of repentance or the doctrine of incremental
sanctification, and they still believe in another gospel other than
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

One may then ask, “Then, what is the difference between
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and trying
to be washed from sin by believing only in the blood of the Cross
and offering the prayers of repentance?” Paul’s faith was one that
believed in the baptism Jesus received from John and His bloodshed
on the Cross as his salvation. By believing in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, we also had truly died with Jesus Christ,
and now live a new life with Him (Romans 6:4). This faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, and the belief that one can
wash his sins everyday through his prayers of repentance, are different
from each other. So, the latter is called “the other gospel.”

The Apostle Paul said, “If anyone preaches
any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be
accursed” (Galatians 1:9). For Christians, the worst abuse that
can be uttered to them in this entire world is, “Damn you.” What
other abuse could possibly be worse than to curse one to be damned
by God and go to hell? When Paul said this passage, he said it to
those who then claimed that people could become God’s own people
if they were circumcised. This passage can also be applied to those
who now claim that they can wash away their sins through their prayers
of repentance. Before God, in other words, there is no other gospel
but the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The true gospel that
the Bible speaks of is the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

What, then, is the other gospel? Today, it is the
false teaching that one can be washed from his sins by offering
prayers of repentance. And in the days of the Early Church, it was
the faith that insisted on physical circumcision. However, the only
true gospel is that to save us from the sins of this world, Jesus
Christ bore these sins once for all by being baptized by John the
Baptist, went to the Cross, shed His blood and died on it, rose
from the dead again, and has thereby completed our salvation.’

Yet most Christians throughout the whole world are
now placing their faith in their own prayers of repentance, which
is different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So when
we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them, it may
seem as if they would be saved at once, but this is not actually
the case. They have been misled by such a false doctrine so much
that their hearts have hardened and they are unaccustomed to the
true gospel. We see that they are unintentionally standing against
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

However, as it is written in the Bible, the poor in
spirit are blessed abundantly through this true gospel. After coming
across the gospel of the water and the Spirit, many throughout the
whole world, even pastors, have sent us the following confession
of salvation, testifying, “I had believed in Jesus as a sinner for
dozens of years, but I was just born again and resolved all my spiritual
problems by this one book.” They are sending us their testimonies,
saying that they had tried to be washed from their sins through
their prayers of repentance to no avail so far, but now, by believing
in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, they have truly
become new.

What happens when one believes only in the prayers
of repentance? Such faith will eventually lead him to have empty
faith drowning in the flood of sins. Such people are akin to those
who create gods out of their own thoughts and worship their idol
gods of their own making. They think that they have been saved from
their sins, and they believe firmly on their own that they have
become God’s people. They think to themselves, “Jesus, You are my
God,” but they believe without realizing the Truth themselves. However,
all their faith is completely futile, like a castle built on sand,
for their faith is built utterly on their own thoughts and not on
the Word of God. They don’t rely on the Truth that says the baptism
of Jesus and His blood on the Cross have made them whole, and are
instead relying on their own prayers of repentance. Even as they
profess to believe in the ministry of Jesus who shed His blood on
the Cross, they are excluding His baptism that was essential to
fulfill the righteousness of God.

Could Jesus really have borne the sins of this world
without the baptism that He received from John? Did Jesus blot out
our sins just by dying on the Cross? Clearly, Jesus took upon our
sins all at once by being baptized by John the Baptist, went to
the Cross and was crucified, washed away the sins of the mankind
once for all, and has thereby saved all His believers. How could
Jesus take upon our sins on the Cross? It was when Jesus was baptized
by John the Baptist that He took upon the sins of the world. To
believe that one can wash away his sins through his prayers of repentance
is a useless belief of one’s own making.

Even now, we see that those who believe in their prayers
of repentance, not in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, are
still praying and praising God. However, these people who believe
only in their prayers of repentances are characterized by the fact
that their lives of faith are clamorous, for there is still sin
in their hearts, and they are only too busy to front their own righteousness.
Regardless of whether there are still sins in their hearts or not,
they praise God, overwhelmed by their own beautiful voices that
stem from their own emotions. They don’t care whether God actually
desires to hear from them or not.

However, what we need to realize here is that Jesus
Christ has perfectly delivered us from the sins of the world through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. There is no sin remaining
in our hearts owing to His righteous acts. It is only when we praise
God with a clear understanding of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that our praise is made genuine before God. It is because
we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are
grateful for the Lord’s salvation, and it is because this inspiration
fills us that we come to glorify God. But, those who believe that
they have been washed from their sins through their prayers of repentance
have to adjust their emotions on their own by telling themselves
ceaselessly, “I belong to God’s people. I am one of the chosen people
of God.”

However, the praise of the righteous is given by faith.
Missing a note is not a concern for us when it comes to praising
God. For anyone who wholeheartedly believes in the God-given gospel
of the water and the Spirit, the gospel of the remission of sin,
it is with all his heart that he praises God. The righteous are
rejoiced to praise God with their hearts of faith. Therefore, you
should recognize that if any Christian believes in another gospel
other than the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then his faith
is a superstitious one. To believe in the Truth, that the Lord has
saved us by blotting out our sins through the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, is true faith.

Let me expand on this point by drawing an analogy
to the religions of the world. Buddhism is one such religion of
the world. Buddhists bow to the stone statues of Buddha asking for
blessings. Some others carve out images out of trees, and then bow
before them and beg for blessings. When Buddhists bow supplicating
for blessings, they open and put out their palms, as if they are
asking for something.

But these stone statues of Buddha are made in the
image of man carved out of rocks by a stonemason. People then take
them as their god and worship them. And they pray to the statues
to bless them. Those who are childless ask for a son. These people
think that if they pray sincerely to what they themselves have carved
out of stones, the statues would somehow help them. None other than
this is a superstitious belief. To believe in the religions of the
world is nothing more than believing in one’s own thoughts.

In contrast, the Apostle Paul stated clearly that
the gospel that he believed in was of the revelation that Jesus
Christ had shown to him. Paul was spiritually awakened by the Word
of the Old Testament, and He came to believe in this gospel Truth.
To know and believe in what God said in the Old Testament about
the remission of sin, and how in the New Testament Jesus Christ
came to this earth, took upon our sins through His baptism, died
on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby saved us
from all our sins—this is the true faith. The ministries of
salvation that Jesus Christ had carried on when He came to this
earth are none other than the ministries of the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. We were able to be remitted from all our sins, receive
eternal life, and become God’s own people by believing in this gospel
of the water and the Spirit manifested in the Word of God.

Paul said that by believing in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, he became a living man, not a dead man, and one
who preached this true gospel. This is why the Apostle Paul rebuked
the circumcisionists to be accursed, saying, “But even
if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than
what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).
Therefore, we need to find out what these other gospels other than
the gospel are.

To find out the other gospels, we must first identify
the biblically true gospel that Paul had believed in and preached.
The Apostle Paul believed that the Son of God had blotted out the
sins of the world by coming to this earth and being baptized, dying
on the Cross and rising from the dead again. This is how Jesus has
saved us from all ours sins, from all the condemnation of sin. This
is none other than Paul’s faith. Paul’s faith was placed not only
in the blood of the Cross, but it was placed in both the baptism
of Jesus and His blood on the Cross.

Then, what is the other gospel that is different from
the true one that Paul believed in? It is the gospel of only the
blood. People who have faith in this gospel of only the blood also
rely on the prayers of repentance to wash away their sins. We the
born-again believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but
most Christians today believe only in the blood of the Cross while
relying on the prayers of repentance. These two faiths are far different
from each other. The gospel of the water and the Spirit that we
believe is the same gospel preached by the Apostle Paul. Therefore,
God approves our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
In contrast, for those who try to wash away their sins through their
prayers of repentance, their faith is different from the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, and so I can say confidently that they
will not be approved by God but be accursed instead.

I am not saying that you don’t need to believe that
Jesus shed His precious blood on the Cross. I am pointing out that
for you to believe only in the blood of the Cross while leaving
out the baptism He received from John is to believe in the other
gospel. As long as you hold fast to the different gospel, you cannot
but place your faith only in the prayers of repentance eventually,
because your sins still remain intact no matter how ardently you
place your faith in such a different gospel.

Could you receive the true remission of your sins
by believing only in Jesus’ bloodshed on the Cross and by offering
your prayers of repentance? Such beliefs are no more than superstitious
beliefs. This kind of faith only means that we somehow agree to
believe in Jesus as our Savior, and it is not placing our faith
in the God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is to believe
in Jesus merely out of our own thoughts in simple gratefulness,
since He shed His precious blood on the Cross for us, and to believe
that the sins we commit afterwards can be washed away by ourselves
through our own prayers of repentance. Such beliefs are, in other
words, completely of one’s own making. “Jesus, I have decided to
regard You as my Savior.” It is because people believe in Jesus
like this that their sins are not perfectly removed from their hearts.
How could their sins be blotted out just because they profess to
believe in Jesus, without knowing how their sins were passed onto
Jesus through His baptism?

The Apostle Paul’s faith is also described in Romans
6. It is written in Romans 6:3-4, “Or do you not know that as
many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into
death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

The Apostle Paul asked here, “Do you not know that
as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
His death?” He said that we were buried with Jesus through baptism
into His death. Jesus Christ came to this earth, took upon our sins
by being baptized from John, and was crucified to death for us.
And He then rose from the dead again. Paul had the faith that Jesus
has saved you and me from all our sins.

Jesus Christ the Lamb of God came to this earth as
the propitiation of all mankind according to the sacrificial system
of the Old Testament. He has saved sinners from their iniquities
by taking upon all the sins of His people through the baptism He
received from John, and by shedding His blood on the Cross. All
these righteous acts coincide exactly with the process of the sin
offering of the Old Testament. As the sacrificial Lamb of God, our
Lord bore the sins of the world by being baptized by John the Baptist.
When we turn our eyes to Matthew 3:13 and on, we see how Jesus was
baptized by John the Baptist and thereby took upon the sins of mankind
once for all. In other words, it was after Jesus was baptized by
John that He was crucified to shed His blood on the Cross and rose
from the dead again, and this is how He has saved us at once from
all our sins (Matthew 3:13-17; John 1:29; John 19:30).

We are now preaching the gospel of the water and the
Spirit throughout the whole world, and Paul in his days was also
preaching the same gospel. This gospel of the water and the Spirit
preached by Paul is the same gospel that we are now preaching. Therefore,
if anyone does not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
and therefore does not preach it, he will be accursed by God.

Churches all over the world are now about to close
their doors, for their congregations do not believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit. Since Christians today believe only
in the blood of the Cross and are trying to wash away their sins
through their own prayers of repentance, their sins ultimately do
not disappear, and since their sins are not blotted out, who would
continue to believe in God? This is why every church has no choice
but to close the door of salvation.

Practically all Christians throughout the entire world
believe that they have received the remission of their sins even
as they believe only in the precious blood of the Cross. But, they
are dying away spiritually, for they cannot but rely on their own
prayers of repentance in vain. Just take a look at the Christians
around you who sing praises filled with only their own emotion.
They cannot but praise like this because they actually do not know
and believe how Jesus Christ has saved them through the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. In contrast, for the born-again who truly
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, praises come
only naturally without forcing their emotion, for they are thankful
from the depth of their hearts for the grace of salvation that the
Lord has bestowed on them.

The Apostle Paul said that anyone who preaches any
gospel other than the true gospel preached by him would be accursed
(Galatians 1:8). Paul asked, “For do I now persuade men, or God?
Or do I seek to please men?” And then he continued to say, “For
if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ”
(Galatians 1:10). Because Jesus Christ came to this earth, was
baptized, died on the Cross, rose from the dead again, and has thereby
saved us from all our sins, the Apostle Paul could not help but
believe in the Truth accordingly and preach it accordingly. Had
Paul sought to please men, he would have preached only the blood
of the Cross, but because He was a bondservant of Christ, he preached
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The Apostle Paul was never
a bondservant of men.

Paul continued to say in Galatians 1:11-12, “But
I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached
by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man,
nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus
Christ.”

What kind of gospel was the gospel that the Apostle
Paul believed and preached to people? Here, “the gospel which was
preached by me [Paul]” means the gospel of the water and the Spirit.He
said that this gospel was neither taught to him by man, nor received
from man, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. He
said that God the Father showed him the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit through Jesus. Paul believed in his heart that Jesus
Christ saved him from all his sins through the water and the Spirit.

We also believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. This is why we are now preaching this gospel of the water
and the Spirit to the truth-seeking Christians scattered throughout
the whole world. It frustrates me greatly when I see the faith of
the majority of Christians in the world. They don’t even realize
that they are spiritually blinded, because they have misbelieved
for such a long time.

In the Early Church period, the Apostles had preached
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Peter also said, “There
is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal
of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward
God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”(1 Peter 3:21).
All of us have the same faith that the Apostle Peter had. Because
Jesus took upon the sins of mankind including your sins once for
all by being baptized by John, died on the Cross, and rose from
the dead again, we can be saved from all our sins by believing in
this.

But what do the majority of Christians throughout
the world believe now? They believe only in the precious blood of
Jesus on the Cross. Of course, the blood He shed on the Cross is
enormously precious for our salvation. But it is of no use if we
do not believe in the baptism He received from John the Baptist.
It is because Jesus was baptized by john and shed His blood on the
Cross that our sins could be passed onto Jesus and be remitted away,
and yet today’s Christians do not know this baptism of Jesus, and
therefore they cannot be washed of all their sins.

For the lawful atonement, sacrificial animals infallibly
had to receive the laying on of hands from sinners and thereby accept
their sins. All sacrifices had to be put to death, after passing
over the sins of sinners through the laying on of their hands. Like
this, Jesus Christ accepted everyone’s sins by being baptized by
John and shed His blood on the Cross and died at once, but most
Christians do not know this nor believe in it. Even now, they must
realize that the Early Church Christians believed in and preached
the true gospel of the water and the Spirit, and they must believe
so.

When Rome was ruling supreme over the whole western
world, Constantine the Roman emperor proclaimed the Edict of Milan
to establish Christianity as the state religion. It was from then
on that the gospel of the water and the Spirit was perverted. The
real truth of salvation is the gospel of the water and the blood,
but the people of that era took out one of the two essentials from
the true gospel. Put differently, they started to take out the baptism
of Jesus from their gospel, and as a result, they came to believe
in the other gospel. Eventually, Christianity, which had once exerted
so much authority as the state religion of Rome, has now become
powerless today.

We believe in and preach the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, which is the same one that was believed in the apostolic
age. Due to our literature ministry, many people throughout the
world, including theologians and pastors, are now returning to the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who study theology deep
enough and in objective perspectives are apt to admit that the gospel
of the water and the Spirit is the real Truth.

But, those who know only their own denomination are
so stubborn that they do not even want to know the gospel Truth
of the water and the Spirit. They are holding onto the blood of
the Cross alone, as if their denominational doctrines are the same
as the Word of God. Some denominations claim that one can receive
the Holy Spirit if he prays like a fanatic, shouting out the name
of the Lord. What a foolish life of faith is this? Trapped in their
own thoughts and obstinacy, they have ended up with irrational,
superstitious faith. Such is the faith of a big frog in a small
pond.

The gospel that the Apostle Paul believed and preached
was the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This gospel of the water
and the Spirit was neither received from men, nor was it learnt
from men. He leaned this true gospel from God through His revelation.
The Apostle Paul’s faith was not a dogmatic faith that today’s Christians
have. From which denomination did you learn your gospel? Any other
gospel that is different from the gospel of the water and the Spirit
is a false gospel.

The Apostle Paul was an expert in the Old Testament.
Even before he met Jesus, from the Old Testament he knew all about
the Truth, that the Messiah would take upon and blot out the sins
of the world through the method of laying on of hands. Paul’s mistake,
however, was that he did not realize that Jesus was the very Son
of God. This is why at first he had persecuted Jesus’ disciples.
Once Paul went to Damascus with his subordinates to kill the disciples
of Jesus there. At that time, Paul’s name was Saul. On his way to
the city, he encountered the living Jesus Christ.

Jesus appeared before Paul in a flashing light brighter
than the sun, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It
is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

So Paul said, “Who are You, Lord?”

And the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for
this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things
which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to
you.”

Jesus Christ shed a bright light and let His voice
be heard, and although the men who journeyed with Paul saw no one,
Jesus Christ appeared only before his eyes and ears. When Jesus
Christ appeared before Paul, the light was so strong that his eyes
were blinded, and soon Paul recognized, “I made a mistake.” “Jesus,
in whom these people believe, truly is the Messiah to come, who
was prophesied in the Old Testament!” Then, Paul came to realize
that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, and the Savior who truly took
upon the sins of mankind by being baptized and blotted them out
by dying on the Cross and rising from the dead again. “The Messiah
has already come. He has already saved me through His baptism and
His blood on the Cross!” It is because he realized and recognized
this that he later became a disciple of Jesus Christ and one of
His Apostles.

As such, the gospel preached by the Apostle Paul is
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which enables us to die
and live with Christ. We have the faith that enables us to be baptized
into Jesus Christ, to die with Him, and to be resurrected with Him.
You must realize that the gospel that has brought us new life is
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that this gospel is
the very gospel that the Apostle Paul preached in the apostolic
age.

The gospel of the water and the Spirit may seem new
to you, but it is the very gospel already manifested and written
in the Bible. It is different from the gospel of only the blood.
The Bible approves only the gospel of the water and the Spirit as
the true gospel. This true gospel is now being testified from mouth
to mouth throughout the whole world. In contrast, the gospel that
consists of only the blood of the Cross can find only half the evidence
of salvation from the Bible. No matter how hard we may search in
the Bible, there is no evidence that Jesus took upon our sins on
the Cross; far from it, the Bible testifies that our sins were passed
onto Jesus Christ when He was baptized by John the Baptist (Matthew
3:13-17).

Would you believe in Jesus Christ as if you were practicing
a religion of the world? Or would you be saved from your sins by
believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus
Christ and live your lives of faith by trusting in this gospel?
Shouldn’t you believe in what Christ has done for you? Everyone
in this whole wide world must believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit now. You must realize that the gospel of the water
and the Spirit is the Truth, and you must also believe in it as
it is.

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Recently, we translated and published a book entitled
The Faith of the Apostles’ Creed. To let everyone know how
we think of and believe in Jesus Christ, we are publishing books
like this and sending them out to the whole world. I am sure this
book will do great works of God all over the world because our faith
in the true gospel is all contained in the book. In this book, we
are testifying our faith just as it is, how we believe in the Son
of God, who we believe He is, and how He has blotted out our sins.
If people would just read a single book of our Christian book series,
they would all realize how and what we believe.

Today, most Christians, who make their confession
of faith claiming that they have received the remission of their
sins by believing only in the blood of the Cross, are still living
as sinners everyday. But the born-again who believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit have no sin. They are righteous everyday
and forever. Though we are insufficient, everyday we live our lives
not as the dead, but as the born-again in Christ. Because Jesus
Christ has brought us new life, as the immortals who have the faith
of everlasting life, we can follow the Lord, and we can enjoy splendor
and glory not just in this world, but also in the next world to
come. God has given you and me such faith.

I give thanks to God for giving me the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.